| > you can only take the minimum amount of the source to bring to mind the original. That's not what the ruling you refer to says, and it's not what the statute says. The ruling's text is at https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/92-1292.ZS.html and mentions nothing along the lines of "minimum". The Supreme Court held in that particular case that the portion of the lyrics copied was not excessive, and left it up to the lower court to decide whether repeating the bass riff was excessive. The statute's general guidelines are that all four of the following factors must be taken into account when determining fair use: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. Factor (3) is the only one that deals with how much of the source material can be used, and it also does not support your assertion. And those rules aren't just for parodies. |